Round 1 - St. Paul's B.C.C. v Institute B.C.C.
Defending champions St. Paul's began their campaign for their third consecutive flag on Ground 1 against a new look Institute side. St. Paul's won the toss and sent Institute in to bat. Institute struggled to a meagre 62 at the completion of their first innings after 43 overs. Rin Pas was a lone hand for Institute in what was otherwise a dismal batting performance. Rin battled on for 28 and was not out at the end of the innings. Paul Ravenarki was the most damaging out of the St. Paul's bowling attack, finishing with the impressive figures of 4-5 (10 overs). Garry Stinchcombe was also handy taking 1-10 off his 10 overs.
Last year's Max Walker medallist, Paul Ravenarki opened the batting for St. Paul's and was bowled for only 14. The St. Paul's top order collapsed quickly until Brett Wilson and David Steeds contributed to a minor mid order revival each scoring 12 runs. An impressive bowling display from Paul Annable, Robert Mascitti and in particular Tony Montesanti with 4-17, continued to force the errors from the batsman, with Institute finally dismissing St. Paul's for an equally meagre 88 after 27 overs.
Institute was on the defensive in their second innings and although being all out for only 53 runs they lasted 43 overs which would make the outright win for St. Paul's a difficult task. The best of the batting for Institute was Tony Montesanti who top-scored with 8 runs. Paul Ravenarki once again performed the best out of the St. Paul bowler's taking 3-8 of 10 overs. David Steeds who had a year out of the game also performed well with the ball taking 2-6 of 10 overs.
St. Paul's needed 28 runs with only 3 overs remaining in the day to achieve an outright win. St. Paul's opened with Paul Ravenarki and David Steeds. Naturally, Institute opened up their bowling with the very restrictive Tony Montesanti. Paul Ravenarki quickly moved the score along hitting a couple of boundaries. David Steeds was bowled by Robert Mascitti for 1. Tony Montesanti bowled the last over with “Rav” on strike and only about 8 runs required for the outright. Tony performed well under the pressure and prevented St. Paul's getting the runs required. At the end of the match St. Paul's were 1-24.
St. Paul's secured 4 points for a first innings win.
Round 1 - Glenferrie B.C.C. v Burwood B.C.C.
The game on Ground 2 saw last year's runners-up in Burwood take on the newly affiliated side Glenferrie Lions. Burwood under new captain David Goodman won the toss and sent Glenferrie into bat. Ty Atkinson and Marco Curralejo opened up the batting for Glenferrie. Ty hit the first boundary for Glenferrie but was caught by David Gauci off the bowling of Brian Talbot for 20 runs. John Tongalea provided an impressive batting display for Glenferrie reaching 34 runs before he was run out by David Goodman. Chris Stevens was equally impressive notching up 38 runs before he was dismissed leg-before-wicket off the bowling of Brian Talbot.
David Goodman (2-14) took a couple of middle-order wickets and the Glenferrie side declared 10/155, with the inspirational Brian Talbot ending with figures of 3-37 off his 10 overs.
With approximately 9 overs remaining in the first day's play, Burwood was sent into bat. The Glenferrie bowlers quickly took three wickets leaving Burwood struggling on 3-9.
Burwood resumed their innings on day two with the main aim of avoiding the follow-on. Hamish McKenzie and Chris Baille steadied the Burwood innings with Hamish making 8 runs and Chris making 12 including a boundary. Scott Peucker was also handy in contributing 12 to the score. Burwood was finally all out for 98 after 47 overs. Dean Calder and Ian Walsh were the best performing bowlers for Glenferrie with Dean taking 2-24 and Ian 3-15.
With an outright win out of the question for Glenferrie late on day two both captains agreed to call the game off one hour before the scheduled finish time.
Glenferrie secured 4 points for a first innings win.